HB 1055 also includes a provision intended to limit access to abortion care. As a result of new licensing requirements for any facility performing abortions, the St. Louis Planned Parenthood facility may end up being the only provider in Missouri. Because access to safe medical care may result in woman seeking safe medical care (gasp...drop to knees and pray)…and we can’t have that!

Pause…collect thyself…continue.

But HB 1055 is not a victory for the anti-choice movement.

Cough.

Because it pissed off this dangerous as hell because I know shit angry black bitch.

And that was not wise.

In response to HB 1055, this bitch is forming a grassroots organization that will utilize the framework of comprehensive sex education and take it to the streets. More on that to come.

In response to HB 1055, I am asking y’all to join me in reclaiming our most precious right…the freedom to know shit and share the shit we know.

In response to HB 1055, I will commit to partner with existing community organizations to find alternative ways to educate people.

In response to HB 1055, I will commit to reach out to faith communities and deconstruct the myth of education inciting risky behavior...to reframe the discussion for what it should be rather than what The Man wants it to be…and to reaffirm that all God’s children are blessed with self determination and deserve the tools through which to determine shit.

In response to HB 1055, I pledge to resist this attempted revival of the by gone “oooooh, now whatcha black folk/women folk/poor folk need to know how to read fo’!” era of pro- ignorance domination and control.

HB 1055 puts women at risk and that puts my community at risk and I simply will not tolerate that.

HB 1055 is an insult to every intelligent woman in Missouri who has made positive choices from a place of knowledge and is now being told they are better off having a power hungry pseudo religious incompetent and out of touch white man in government make those choices for them.

So thanks Matt, because I woke up this morning fired the hell up.

Don’t get me wrong, I still intend to support efforts to undo this legislative fuck up. I will continue to support rational politicians who legislate on behalf of their constituents rather than pander to the extremists who have hijacked power from the masses here in Missouri.

But I am a citizen activist...I answer to no budget...and my resistance starts now.

Which should come as no surprise, since I am a dangerous woman (wink).

In the tradition of Margaret Sanger, Ida Comstock and all the un named , unrecognized women who acted for the reproductive rights of women and our modern day safe sex educators of the early days of the HIV epidemic. Act Up !

YES these educational campaigns must be taken to the people, to the street corners, to the community centers - to anywhere that will have your group come and do the necessary education that all people are entitled to. Some need to know their rights, for starts.

Women are entitled to complete safe pre natal care and safe medical care when choosing to terminate a pregnancy of course. No the oppressors will not win. Hell no.

I wish you well, with this project.(its time has surely come,again) No more than that - I wish you COMPLETE AND TOTAL success. Educate Educate Educate !!! Ignorance kills. You go Shark Fu - they are messing with the wrong Bitches.

I remember doing a safe sex ed. program in a church basement circa 1984,in New York State, and subsequently having the pearl clutching clergy basically run us off. We asked , what did you think we were gonna do ? Young People need to know about Birth Control,HIV and STDs and how to use condems..etc. It was amazing to me, that they would rather their own children die vs.recieving safe sex education. It was just sickening.

I can't believe the blind idiocy of abstinence-only education in the face of glaring evidence of its effectiveness. People still insist on it in my home community despite the BLATANTLY obvious fact very few people actually practice it. Instead we suffer through an ongoing teenage pregnancy issue and a whole lot of misinformation floating around.

Godspeed ABB. These fundamentalist whackjobs are going to pull their heads out of their asses one day and find themselves left alone in the world.

Let me know what I can do over here at my end of the state. MOCSA (Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault) is probably already in full gear assault, as they had a wonderful relationship program that covered not only the myriad number of birth control methods, but also what healthy relationships look like and how to achieve them. Goodness knows we don't want kids learning that

At the beginning of an environmental revolution we heard "It is the public that is being asked to assume the risks...the public must decide whether it wishes to continue on the present road and it can only do so when in full possession of the facts..." ~ Rachel Carson. It rings true again and again and again.

I'm one state over from you. St. Louis's Planned Parenthood is one of the nearest abortion providers to where I live, and I live a couple of hours away. The only reproductive care services here are at the student health center (and thank goodness for that, but it is only available to enrolled students) and a "Crisis Pregnancy Center" that provides no health care or information about contraception. I'm doing more investigating on the situation. Keep me informed of anything that I can do to help because this shit has got to stop!

That law is a damn crime, and you just know other places are going to get ideas and do the same.

Yeah - the Right has a good reason for keeping shit stirred up around sex/sexuality/sexual knowledge & all things that are not built on an imaginary white middle class protestant/christian model of sexual asceticism. This is a wildly successful funding mechanism, ya know. Want to generate a butt load of money? Just whisper "sex" in the ears of the right(ist) People, and their wallets and checkbooks fly open to pave the way for the Conservative Warring Machine to take office. And how better to keep them all stirred up & ready to pour those millions into Right Wing Agendas but to (pretend to) keep sex at bay - just out of reach - jacking up the desire factor through the commodification of youthful sexuality - and deliberately calling all non-missionary/woman- submissive non-marital coitus a very, very dangerous Sin. And certainly withhold life-saving and life-empowering information and services from the most at-risk (which just happen to be other-than-white-middle-class) so the Powers that Be can continue to watch entire communities live down to the poverty and violence that White Middle Class America demands of them so the Rightists can justify the money to keep them in power to protect the "rest of us". And let's lay it all on the backs of women because they are, of course, the pawns of a greater good - regardless of whose version of "greater good" is to be done. See - we told ya so - now let us protect the deserving from the primative & sexually uncontrollable and highly dangerous people (dark skinned, poor whose bodies we want to f*ck and will take without asking but will deny even if caught in the act) who keep proliferating and spreading disease and killing each other while the rest of us quietly boink whomever and however and pay for those same services privately and off-radar.

I am in agreement with Red. You rock ABB. So refreshing to hear people tell it like it is. My blood ran cold the day I discovered the Theocracy in this country started legislating ignorance. Time to plant a foot in their fear/hate/ignorance mongering asses.

Oh Lawd...I live in Mississippi, and I just know we'll be following suit in short order. I was going to say "we few educated Mississippians are behind you," but then I got to thinking, pretty soon it won't matter because we'll be fighting the same fight ourselves.

Until that time comes, and forever thereafter...Brandish your flaming sword of knowledge and slay ignorance wherever you find it!

When I was 18, pregnant and scared, I made two appointments. One with Planned Parenthood, and one with a Crisis Pregnancy Center. Planned Parenthood gave me options; the Crisis Center, after finding out that I was no longer considering an abortion told me that they had no services to offer me. Sign me up, ABB. I have little money, and little time....but I'm chock full of rage at the system, and empathy for the young women who won't be offered a full range of options like I was. I'm in this for the long haul with you.

How 'bout scoping out billboards near schools -- and getting ads with website URLs featuring ACCURATE sex-ed info on them?

Even better (and this just occurred to me): ORGANIZE THE KIDS. Go into the schools, meet with the kids, get them to organize and do their own research. What's Blunt-head going to do to stop that? Not much he can do, actually!

Well, you might want to consider using that state motto "Show me..." in any literature or posters or speeches...

It would be great for repetition. Show me where it says, etc., etc.

Unfortunately, even on progressive spaces, some people really just don't get it. A new group blog Open Left was just launched, and someone has posted a diary on "re-framing" the abortion issue. So far, not so good.

I did my own post at lyssa-strada.blogspot.com, in addition to my comments at Open Space.

Maybe some fact sheets like the ones that the child passenger safety advocates put out... w/ state and national statistics, etc...?

Your post reminded me of The Little Red School Book (http://www.milesago.com/press/lrs.htm) which was a huge controversy over here a few years ago - knowledge is power and we cannot have it stripped away from us!

Planned Parenthood provides healthcare services to people who might not otherwise be able to get it. Abortion is a fraction of what they do overall. These days, being a woman means nothing; our bodies and souls be damned.

The good old boy network is working on creating a class of people who are beholden to those same good old boys. Education is for the rich only. The rest of us are but slaves to be created solely for the purpose of their world views. be it war, factory work (which has declined to the point of virtual extinction), or grunt work - of course at pay equal to that of a new immigrant.

This is just a tool to create the class they desire. It's not really about black or white, it's all about rich and richer and poor and poorer.

I am a straight white woman who doesn't live in MO, but we see are seeing this happen district by district (or should that be destruct), state by state, and region by region by republicans who steal elections, commit fraud and other crimes to allow them to continue to screw The People.

Good luck, ABB. You'll be getting some help from me in terms of funding. Rock on!

I am here courtsey from your sisters over at sirenchronicles.My people originally come fron Licking Mo., and I hope you give those folks over at the govenors a licking!Right after you give them a kicking~ fight the good fight sister,know you are not alone!Peace as always and in all ways

Just as a follow up, I thought I'd let you know that MOCSA is looking for an educator, and I'm going to apply for the position, seeing as how I"m qualified, and all. Might as well put my money where my mouth is.